This invention relates generally to social networking, and in particular to providing a user profile for a user of a social networking system that includes experiences in which other social networking system users can be tagged.
Social networking systems have become prevalent in recent years because they provide a useful environment in which users can connect to and communicate with other users. A variety of different types of social networking systems exist that provide mechanisms allowing users to interact within their social networks.
One common characteristic of social networking systems is providing a user profile where the user can provide information about the user's experiences, such as educational experiences, work experiences, and the like. Typically the information is organized into linear information, intended for viewing only, provides few if any common information between users, and actions are not taken upon the experiences themselves. However, richer information about the user experiences is left out. For example, that a user worked at a specific employer for a certain number of years provides little information about what the user did at the employer, what was his progression through the company, etc.
In addition, many connections between users are missed by such strictly informational user profiles. Many user who are connections of each others have shared experiences in common, but those shared experiences between users are absent from the user profiles unless they are compared side by side for the users. For example, a first user's profile page may list that he worked at Company X during the time period 2000-2006. A second user's profile lists that she worked at Company X overlapping with that time period, 1999-2005. At best typical profiles list a job title. However, looking at the information on the first user's profile, the viewer would have no way of knowing that the second user worked with the first user on a project spanning the years 2001-2003 by viewing either profile alone, and likely might not even recognize that the two users had any common employer.